Tottenham Hotspur manager Thomas Frank publicly praised Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Vitinha following the Portugal international\u2019s Champions League hat-trick at the Parc des Princes. Vitinha\u2019s first equaliser came from 25 yards and found Guglielmo Vicario\u2019s top corner, while his second was noted for its technical quality and dribbling.<\/p>\n
Frank, speaking after his side\u2019s defeat in France, made clear his frustration at surrendering leads during the contest. He referenced Spurs having been 1\u20130 up and then 2\u20131 up before the home side turned the game.<\/p>\n
Frank said: \u201cThere is a frustration when you go 1\u20130 up and 2\u20131 up against PSG away from home. The performance was to really get something out of the game\u2014a point or three points. That was the performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou hope Vitinha doesn\u2019t put the ball in the top corner. That was very tricky. Then the two goals, their third and fourth, you can\u2019t concede them if you want to win here.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the way, Vitinha, best midfielder in the world, he\u2019ll be the next Ballon d\u2019Or winner, for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vitinha celebrated a personal milestone after the match and reflected on his unexpected scoring haul. He said that he had never before scored twice in a single game, and that the hat-trick was the first time he had achieved so much in one match.<\/p>\n
Vitinha said: \u201cIt\u2019s the first time. Even two, it\u2019s the first time. I had never scored two in the same game,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIt was incredible, I think it\u2019s a bit of a mental thing. If you don\u2019t think about scoring a lot of goals, you probably won\u2019t. You have to believe, you have to push, too. Of course, always for the good of the team and never against the team, but you have to believe, show up, feel that the ball will come to you.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe truth is that I had luck combined with the goals and I\u2019m overjoyed. I never, never thought I\u2019d score three goals in a game. Very happy to have scored, but mainly for the victory.\u201d<\/p>\n
The win moved Paris Saint-Germain second in the Champions League standings with three games remaining.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thomas Frank hailed Vitinha after a Champions League hat-trick, calling him his next Ballon d’Or. PSG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1031,172,187],"tags":[1064,1047,1019],"class_list":["post-4729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-paris-saint-germain","category-epl","category-tottenham-hotspur","tag-ballon-dor-2","tag-champions-league","tag-creative-players"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}